Liberty graduate survives life-altering accident and continues his ministry

The new year is full of hopes for the future, resolutions that haven’t yet been abandoned and the Christmas high slowly waning. But for Kenneth Smith and his family, the new year of 2021 was a time of heartbreak and disaster. 

In January 2021, Smith suffered a traumatic car accident that left him with compound fractures in both legs, a dislocated right arm and several other broken bones. 

“It was the first Monday of the year,” Smith recalled, “and my son and I were going to work.” 

On their way there, they saw the car in front of them crash into a semi-truck. Seeing a flash of light and a burning car with a woman still trapped inside, Smith and his son Brayden pulled over and rushed to help, along with two other drivers who were already at the scene. 

Successfully managing to rescue the woman from the burning car, Brayden held her hand as she sat on the ground, unable to walk from an injury to her hip, only to hear a loud boom. As Kenneth Smith backed up a few steps to see that it was his car that had been hit, he heard someone say the words, “He’s not stopping” and “The lights went out.” 

Smith later found out that an SUV had crashed into the scene, killing the woman instantly, while throwing Brayden into his father. Waking up in the ER, Smith found that he had broken both of his legs with compound fractures that caused the bones to pierce the skin.

 “My left leg has 11 fractures from the knee down, (and) the X-ray looked like a jigsaw puzzle,” Smith recounted. “My head was scalped, a big portion of it torn off and hanging.” 

Yet in the midst of the catastrophic damage, Smith still felt God’s protection. The Smith family saw God’s hand in their lives as their church community and many others came to their aid. In fact, Smith’s time in the hospital allowed him to minister to those around him.

“Out of all that, though, praise God, I didn’t have any vascular damage at all. There was also no major nerve damage, which is a major miracle in and of itself,” Smith said. “I still get chills thinking about it. No infection. All the things that can go wrong and none of them did.”

During his recovery in the hospital, Smith decided he was going to make the most out of it. God worked through him and gave him the chance to minister to others there. 

“God brought people into his life every day that lifted him up,” Katy Smith, Smith’s wife, said. “There was a nurse that had just accepted Christ and wanted to talk to him about it. (There was) a young guy who was thinking about committing suicide, and Kenny found out and was able to help him.” 

God continued to work with Smith even after he was discharged. 

Recovering at home under Katy’s loving care, Smith said that “people really came out of the woodwork to help us.” Not only did their church family rally around them to offer help and support, but many others emerged as well. 

“We got a FedEx from a young man I haven’t seen in 30-something years,” Smith said, “He said, ‘Kenny, I want to do this for you. When you were a Young Life leader, you touched so many people’s lives through just being there and hanging out with us.’” 

Inside the FedEx was a sizable check, so sizable, that Smith almost fainted. Through that one act of generosity, the Smith family was able to pay for “our rental van, the electric wheelchair and all the things that the insurance wasn’t going to cover,” Katy Smith said. 

This wasn’t the only instance of unexpected generosity. Throughout Smith’s recovery process, many people stepped forward to help in huge ways. Smith and his family have felt God’s hand in their lives stronger than ever, as the care and generosity of their church community and others carried them through that difficult time. 

After stepping down as pastor of his church in Delaware, the Smiths moved to Lynchburg in April to be closer to family, just in time for Katy Smith to walk the graduation stage in May to receive her master’s diploma from Liberty University. She had been working toward this goal all the while along with playing a pivotal role in Smith’s recovery process. 

Kenneth Smith earned his bachelor’s and master’s in divinity studies and a doctorate in ministry from Liberty.

Throughout the recovery process, Smith said that the Bible verse Romans 8:28 kept coming back to him. Romans 8:28 states, “God makes all things work together for the good of those who are called according to his purpose.” 

Now, the Smith family is ready for whatever God has next for them. 

“I’m waiting to see what God has in store, and I won’t be surprised whatever it is,” Smith said. “It’s exciting for me. I get chills thinking about what’s next.” 

Perez is a feature reporter for the Liberty Champion